So this looks to be today's "outrage" post from the band of merry liberals. Crying foul over a bonus not getting renewed. Prediction for tomorrow: Either glynch, bj, macnugget, or maybe rimbaud will start a thread that discredits either President Bush, reports bad news from Iraq, or cries about the economy. Ten minutes later, enter the "me-too" content-lacking liberal followers, who include such gems as rm95, timing, swtsig, underoverup, et al. They will contribute rich content comprised of one-line posts and partial sentences. If there's any sort of race issue at hand, rocket river may serenede us with one of his haikus. Then a post from the right comes in and the liberals swarm, barraging the right with insults, and claims of "do you actually BELIEVE that????". Just another day on the bbs...
Just like a Bushie to blame the messenger. You know, we're not inventing these stories. I agree it's a drag that there are so many of them (worse that they're happening than being reported), but apparently the only way to fix that's regime change. Be patient, texxxy. Just a year and some change to go.
Why is it that the pro war crowd accuses the anti-war crowd of not supporting the troops. Then when it comes time to pay the bonus to the troops, and the Bush admin wants to cut that bonus, it's the pro war crowd who defend the decision and the anti-war crowd who believe are troops should be compensated for the hard and dangerous work they are doing. I think the anti-war group should show their support for the troops now and protest for their wages. Hell, those guys over there deserve those bonuses and many more. The next time a pro-war supporter accuses a war protestor of not supporting the troops, just remember who stands where on the actions that go with that support. Pro war folk talk a good game about giving support to our troops, but don't appear to back it with any action. Actions speak louder than words.
It's a nice sentiment, FranchiseBlade, but you're living in the past. Words speak much louder than actions nowadays. Compassionate conservatism, Uniter-not-divider, Leave no child behind, tax cut for all Americans -- all lies which all did the trick. Same with the myriad lies about Iraq. It isn't important to do things anymore -- only to say them. Put a bumper sticker on your car and a flag on your antenna, say stuff like "I support the troops with every ounce of my being," etc. Much more powerful than actually supporting them. Hasn't Bush taught you anything?
Just to clear something up, I wasn't against the idea of possibly taking Saddam out at some point... I think it could have been done at another time with patient diplomacy to have our allies with us. Bush mis-handled the entire thing horribly. We are paying for that now.
As a matter of fact, I think Bush has shown himself entirely incompetent to run the country. I had hoped, as a Democrat appalled that he had made it to the White House, that he would have at least surrounded himself with highly qualified advisors. He has done nothing of the sort. And, in my opinion, he is endangering what has made us a country envied by most of the rest of the world. I hope we can recover from the damage he has caused and is causing to America. (I'll get off my soap-box now)
Trader_Jorge, et al., First of all, the idea that free markets will always yield efficient outcomes is incorrect. Equity aside, efficiency is hardly guaranteed by free labor or commodity makets for a number of reasons: externalities, information asymmetry, multi-period negotiation, public goods problems etc. Even if people were fully rational beings, market failure WILL exist because every good is not a purely private good (among other reasons), and people's preferences cannot be revealed perfectly (furthermore, even if they could be revealed perfectly, there are plenty of rational and reasonable choice paradoxes that are possible). I'm not taking sides on this, but as an example, in the teacher's case, the notion that teachers are underpaid is widely held, even by the most conservative economists (and I don't use conservative in the political sense, but rather in the UChicago sense): Even if the profession was completely deregulated (which it's not), they would STILL be underpaid because of the fact that there are immense externalities involved in education. I derive utility from the fact that all of my neighbors are smarter (ostensibly because it makes for a stronger democracy, more informed voting, less crime, etc.) However, in a purely unregulated market, if I was a rational person, I would NOT pay for this extra social benefit. Hence, although I'm aligning my marginal benefit from my education with the marginal cost of it (teacher wages), marginal SOCIAL benefit is not being equated to marginal SOCIAL cost. That's just a simple example of a public good problem. The idea that free markets solve everying is NOT correct. You will not find a single economist who thinks this. If somebody just read the first 3 chapters of an introductory microeconomics text, they might get the idea that markets are efficient, but that doesn't make it so.
Vik, nice post, but you just spent about ten minutes addressing Trader_Jorge. Consequently, he owns you. Hey, I don't make the rules. p.s. We're into less-informed voting these days, not more. Informing the public is unpatriotic and bad for the economy.
I have no idea what the argument is about here. This pretty much sums up this as a non issue. When this policy was instituted it was set to expire. Now the expiration date is coming upon us and all of a sudden everybody jumps on Bush like it is his fault. I don't really think he has anything to do with this. This policy was put in place...it has run its course...and now it is expiring on the congressional agreed upon date. It will take an act of congress to extend this pay or maybe make it permenant. I'm sure the President could help out by endorsing it...but its up to Congress to push this through...the President can only sign it when it comes to him.
aside from (1) taking the bait and (2) misspelling "everything," it was perfect nice job shining some light on the cracks in the free market myth
Just because it was set to expire doesn't mean we can't criticize our government (I'll be the first to criticize any Democrat who wants to let this expire as well) for not taking the steps to extend it. It sickens me that anyone purporting to be an American supporting our troops is not outraged by this.
All it would take is a speech directed at the Republican controlled Congress to do it when they are in session. Although an executive order would probably do the trick. Just direct Rumsfeld to move some money around that is discretionary.
I have always maintained that the US is a *close approximation* to a free market. I have never said it was a pure free market economy. No place is. I believe in the theory of free markets, recognizing that there are imperfections, but also recognizing that I prefer no other economic system above it. Vik, I generally agree with parts of your public goods example, but you are ignoring the supply side of the equation. There are sufficient numbers of workers who are willing to occupy these teaching positions at the stated wage levels. If schools needed more teachers, they would be forced to hike wages in an effort to make the position more attractive. This is not necessary. The public good example is legitimate, but not wholly perfect. We do pay for living in better environments indirectly through home prices and rents. This gets priced into the equation, which is why there are vast differences in costs of living in places like NYC versus Beaumont. In a quasi-free market, the teacher would see parts of this benefit returned to them, as the tax base drives their salary levels.
